The Second Disc’s Record Store Day 2012 Essential Releases

Well, Record Store Day is finally upon us!  Tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, music fans and collectors will descend upon their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those black platters and the cherished physical shopping environments alike.  As Record Store Day 2012 will offer a typically eclectic array of limited edition releases (primarily on vinyl but also some on CD, too!) from many of our favorite artists here at Second Disc HQ, we thought we would take a moment to count down the titles to which we’re most looking forward!  I’ll take my turn first, and then after the jump, you’ll find Mike’s picks for some of the finest offerings you might find at your local retailer!  And after you’ve picked up your share of these special collectibles, don’t hesitate to browse the regular racks, too…you never know what you might find!

You’ll find more information and a link to a downloadable PDF of the complete Record Store Day list here, and please share your RSD 2012 experiences with us below.  Happy Hunting!

5.            Miles Davis, Forever Miles (Columbia/Legacy)

This five-track collection spotlights various eras of the legendary trumpeter via alternate takes and rare mixes new to vinyl plus a previously unreleased live recording.  It adds up to a sonic journey through the many iterations of jazz itself.  From the fifties comes a 1956 take of “Dear Old Stockholm” with John Coltrane and the first take of 1957’s “Blues for Pablo” with Gil Evans.  “Hand Jive” is an alternate from the Miles Davis Quintet box chronicling Davis’ “Second Great Quintet” of 1965-1968.  A new mix of “Early Minor” from the In a Silent Way box (1969) rounds out the set along with a previously unreleased “Directions”  from 1970 at The Fillmore East.

 

4.            David Bowie, Starman (Virgin)

Remember the picture disc?  Virgin Records brings it back with this 45 RPM single containing two versions of David Bowie’s “Starman,” off The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, soon to be celebrating its 40^th anniversary with a new CD/DVD edition.  Bowie, in his most far-out garb, adorns the vinyl, on which you’ll hear both the original song and a live Top of the Pops performance!

3.            The Mynah Birds, It’s My Time/Go On and Cry (Motown)

It might be difficult to resist an offering from Neil Young or Rick James, but how about a 45 RPM single from a band which counted both gentlemen among its members?  The single “It’s My Time” b/w “Go On and Cry” was slated for 1966 release on Motown’s V.I.P. imprint, but was shelved until 2006’s Complete Motown Singles Volume 6 box set arrived.  Now, six years later, the single comes full circle and finally gets its intended vinyl pressing.  Get it while you can!

2.            Various Artists, Never To Be Forgotten – The Flip Side of Stax 1968-1974 (Light in the Attic)

Light in the Attic has pulled out all of the stops for this Record Store Day crown jewel: a 7” vinyl box set containing ten singles from the Stax library circa 1968-1974!  Artists include Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Mable John, Melvin Van Peebles and the Mad Lads, and their singles are housed in a stunning 10 x 7” magnetic flip-top box which also contains an 84-page book.  Though a digital edition was released last week, no CD version has been announced, so vinyl is truly the best option to experience these seldom-heard Stax sides.  And who could resist that book?  You might also want to check out LITA’s new Lee Hazlewood compilation, The LHI Years!  It arrives soon on CD, but is making an early appearance on vinyl as part of the RSD festivities!

1.            Buck Owens, Coloring Book and Flexi Disc (Omnivore)

Were there prizes awarded for Most Creative and Most Fun Releases this year at Record Store Day, the top honors would surely go to the team at Omnivore Recordings!  They’ve given nostalgia a new meaning with the release of the Buck Owens Coloring Book and Flexi Disc.  The country star and Hee Haw host planned to release his official coloring book in 1970, but instead, the books languished in a warehouse.  Omnivore to the rescue!  The clever label has bundled one of these original Owens treasures with a newly-pressed flexi-disc (available in red, white or blue, natch). The coloring book tells the story of Buck and his Buckaroos, with the grand finale a concert performance that can be heard on the flexi-disc. “Act Naturally,” “Together Again,” “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” and “Crying Time” are all mentioned in the coloring book and can be played by you, the reader! All four songs come from Owens’ White House performance on September 9, 1968 before President Lyndon B. Johnson. A digital download card also contains all four songs, and the full concert will be released later this year on CD from Omnivore.  In the meantime, this unique offering just might make you join me in shouting, “Hee haw!”

Hit the jump for Mike’s top picks!

Intrada Hears “Whispers in the Dark”

Intrada’s latest release, announced Monday, is another totally unreleased gem of a score: Thomas Newman’s music to Whispers in the Dark.

The 1992 drama, which starred Annabella Sciorra, Anthony La Paglia, John Leguizamo and Alan Alda, is a dark and sexual thriller about a psychologist whose patient may be dating a serial killer. While the film was not a smash – Alda in fact was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor – the score by Newman (whose great Galaxy Quest was just released by La-La Land) is among many great works he would complete in the early ’90s, including Scent of a Woman and The Shawshank Redemption. Initially planned for a soundtrack release alongside the film’s period of distribution by Varese Sarabande, Intrada maintains some of the original, intended album presentations on this disc. (The film featured a lot of the music ultimately edited and reorganized, but this release presents a good mix of Newman’s original intentions and some creative new presentations.)

In all, the complete score, from the original digital session masters, is here, and yours to order after the jump.

An Off-the-Wall Compilation from Shout! Factory Celebrates Vans’ Warped Tour

During the last boom era for the music industry, everything was big. Bigger than big, even. Whole festivals were taken on the road, rather than just anchored to one place. Lollapalooza popularized this idea in the early ’90s, and the rolling festival concept hit its zenith in 1995, with the birth of the Vans Warped Tour. The tour, sponsored by the long-running skate shoe company, has catered to the ever-burgeoning scene of alternative and punk subcultures, welcoming both living legends of punk and ska and modern hitmakers, including The Specials, Bad Religion, NOFX, Blink-182, Weezer and more.

The tour kicks off its arguably largest leg this year, with a date scheduled for the U.K. in November, the first time the Warped Tour has played outside North America. Shout! Factory is also releasing a new documentary, No Room for Rockstars, explaining the history and culture of the tour based on footage from the 2010 leg.

The DVD, which includes another 90 minutes of bonus footage, will also feature a special extra for catalogue enthusiasts: a 10-track bonus disc of notable tracks by favorite past acts. While they don’t look to be live recordings from years of tours (which would have been a real coup), the set, which includes tunes by No Doubt, The Buzzcocks, Sublime and The Damned, would make the perfect road mix, should you decide to take a trek to the next Warped date near you.

The DVD/CD set is out May 15. Hit the jump for a look at the track list.

Chili Peppers Revisit Classic Covers on Digital EP

How do the Red Hot Chili Peppers celebrate their graduation to legend status per their recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction? They pay tribute to the ones that came before on a new digital EP that includes a handful of B-sides paying tribute to their favorite fellow inductees.

We Salute You, to be released May 1, includes covers of Dion and The Belmonts, The Ramones, The Stooges, Neil Young, The Beach Boys and David Bowie, all of which can certainly be argued as influences for the long-running funk-rock outfit.  Half of the covers are studio takes, having appeared on CD singles or other compilations (the band’s take on The Ramones’ “Havana Affair” dates from 2003’s We’re a Happy Family tribute album, for example). The other half are live tracks, one of which is being released for the first time anywhere. (All but one of these tracks have never appeared in digital format before.)

For those fans that haven’t warmed up to new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who joined following original arguably best-known guitarist John Frusciante’s second departure last year, fear not: almost every one of these tracks features the band’s innovative axeman. (The cover of Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” dates from the band’s most recent tour last year, while their take on Bowie’s “Suffragette City” was released on a CD single during the One Hot Minute era, when Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction served as guitarist.)

Check out the full track lineup after the jump.

Friday Feature: “The Orange Bird” Returns to Walt Disney World

Earlier this week, Walt Disney World welcomed back an old friend: Florida’s Orange Bird, absent from the World since 1987!  We thought this would be a great time to bring back the Friday Feature, which is usually dedicated to film soundtracks but occasionally takes a Disney diversion!  Today, we’re turning the spotlight on the little Orange Bird’s one moment of recorded glory, on which he was joined by a future Oscar winner!

Move over, Jose, Fritz and Pierre.  There’s a new bird in Adventureland.  Well, this new bird is actually an old bird, but he hasn’t aged a day!  On April 17, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom officially welcomed back the Orange Bird. Though the winged little fellow was a symbol of the Florida theme park since its 1971 debut (and actually made his debut a few months before Walt Disney World itself!), he flew to retirement in 1987 with only infrequent appearances since.  With the adorable Orange Bird now restored to a place of prominence in the same land as those other, more famous birds of The Enchanted Tiki Room, we’re taking a Second Disc-style look at our feathered friend’s history and, of course, his distinguished musical career on record!

In 1969, the Florida Citrus Commission signed on to sponsor the Magic Kingdom’s Sunshine Pavilion, which included the Tropical Serenade  attraction (known today as Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room) and the Sunshine Tree Terrace refreshment stand serving Citrus Swirl, a delectable blend of vanilla ice cream and orange slush.  The notion was hit upon to create a character to represent both Florida’s history and the soon-to-be-iconic theme park.  That character would not only be visible in Walt Disney World, but throughout the state, on billboards and in advertisements for Florida Orange Juice.  Designed under the supervision of Bob Moore, now a Disney Legend, the little Orange Bird with the leafy wings could also count Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman among his fathers.  The Academy Award-winning songwriting duo had already penned the theme song to the “Tiki Room” and numerous other park attractions including, of course, “It’s a Small World.”  They were dispatched to create the bird’s origin, if you will, in a story with music that would be released on Disneyland Records and introduce him to the world-at-large.

The Sherman Brothers composed six songs for The Story and Songs of the Orange Bird, a “magnificent book and long-playing record from the Walt Disney Studio,” as the album cover trumpeted.  Jimmy Johnson adapted the script from a story by Vince Jefferds.  Tutti Camarata, who had produced many of the Sherman Brothers’ songs for Annette Funicello, handled the same duties for The Orange Bird.  Studio stalwarts The Mike Sammes Singers functioned as the chorus.  But the Orange Bird couldn’t speak or sing; his thoughts instead appeared in the form of orange puffs of smoke above his head.  (Orange Haze?)  How would the story be told, then?  To narrate his story and sing a bit, too, Walt Disney Productions and the Florida Citrus Commission chose Anita Bryant.  A former Miss Oklahoma and second runner-up in 1959’s Miss America pageant, Bryant had placed a number of songs on the Hot 100 chart including a cover of Meredith Willson’s “Till There Was You” from The Music Man.  In 1969, she became a spokeswoman for the Citrus Commission, so she was a natural selection.

In retrospect, Bryant’s presence on the album may leave a taste that’s not as sweet as Florida orange juice.  When a law prohibiting discrimination against gays was passed in Florida in 1977, Bryant became an outspoken crusader for its repeal, succeeding in having the law overturned.  Her contract with the Citrus Commission was allowed to lapse in 1979, thanks to the overwhelmingly negative publicity surrounding her political actions and the ensuing boycotts on Florida orange juice.  Bryant has maintained a low profile in the past three decades.  In 1998, the anti-discrimination ordinance was reinstated in Florida.  When interviewed by authors Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar for their definitive 2006 study of Walt Disney Records, Mouse Tracks, Bryant still harbored fond memories of the LP.

Bryant was joined by a future Academy Award winner as part of the album’s cast.  You’ll find out all about him after the jump when we delve into The Story and Songs of the Orange Bird on Disneyland Records in 1971!